Raspberry Wheat Ale | Garrison Brewing Company

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11.5oz (?) bottle purchased from the brewery by my Mum and brought back to Australia. Shared with @LaitueGonflable.

Pours a very pale golden colour, very clear and very bright in the body. Carbonation is extremely coarse and rather effervescent. Crazy head of off-white forms very solidly despite a gentle pour. Specked in the body with bits of chunks when the sediment is aroused. Body is very light. Overall, it looks okay, but not really better than that.

Nose smells intensely of raspberries, but with a thick sugary sweetness. Slight vegetative undertone, but not really much contribution from anything else. It's intense, but a little bit one-dimensional.

Taste is very disappointing by comparison. Here, there's a huge clinging yeasty earthiness, which lambasts the more subtle raspberry character, making it feel small and meek. Bready tones come through as well. There is a touch of raspberry on the front, but stacks of that nasty woody, yeasty, nasty nastiness on the back. It's a big shame.

Feel is very light, leaving nothing to the imagination.

Overall, this isn't very good. It's weird, which at least makes it interesting, but the characters don't mesh well together. In the end, it didn't do much for me.

Bottle: Poured a light pinkish color ale with a medium size foamy head with average retention and light lacing. Aroma of light raspberry with some enhance syrup is not the most exciting; wheat malt do no play a big role in this beer. Taste is also dominated by light raspberry notes with a subtle tart profile with a light background of raspberry syrup and a bland malt profile. Body is a bout average for style with medium carbonation. Mediocre offering from a brewer that is known to brew better beer.

A - About a full finger of head, that dies down into a nice lace around the top, with an off-white color. The beer itself is semi-transnparent orange hue with a lot of floaties (Maybe I stored it too cold?) that just hang in it

S - Much more subdued smell than expected. Rasberry sourness is there with wheat and light malt. Slight hoppy-ness as well.

T - Distinctly rasberry, very sweet with a touch of sour. The wheat taste isn't quite as obvious, but is still present. Very little hops, but light malt and citrus flavor make it fairly complex. Don't know if I really love it. Starts to warm up with a bit of a soapy taste, not crazy about that.

M - Shockingly thick and dry. Carbonation is about average. Just surprisingly heavy for a wheat beer.

D - Starts out pretty strong, but the flavor simply doesn't hold up. Not terrible, but I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Yet another from the variety 6-pack from Garrison, a 341 ml brown bottle. Pours out a slightly hazed golden hue with a tinge of amber from the berries. A finger's width of creamy white head that settles to a thin cap.

The aroma is all sweet raspberry, with a very faint background of bready malt.

Things switch places in the flavour with some sharp grainy malt that smooths out in the middle, faint sweet raspberry on the finish along with leafy, grassy hops that get more spicy and herbal into the aftertaste.

Medium-full mouthfeel, creamy smooth texture with low carbonation.

A bit of a misfit when it comes to a fruit beer, especially a raspberry wheat. The flavour doesn't tend to really offer what's on the label, and the hops tend to stick out like a sore thumb in relation to the style. Not sure what they were aiming for with this one, I admit I don't get it.

Raspberry Wheat is coloured more like wheat than raspberries; it has a coppery golden, sun-kissed tone that looks perfect for a light, summery fruit beer. Its clarity is disturbed only by an unremitting bounty of bubbles that spurts up in perpetual (and seemingly endless) numbers. A creamy overlap of head lay atop the beer like a still pond.

The aroma smells like raspberries - that's good. But the aroma also contains a lot of plain, stale, damp paper-like must of unfurnished pale malt - that's bad. I understand a fruit beer is intended to smell like fruit but who says you can't include a little extra aromatic malt? Besides, the hint of raspberry comes across as painstakingly artificial anyhow.

Speaking of malt, why do so many breweries release fruit beers with 'wheat' in the name? I don't dispute that some wheat was used in this recipe, but this (like all the others) drinks just like pale ale or lager. Wheat beers are meant to be effervescent, with a creamy fullness, a light body and refreshing finish and - take note - the grainy flavour of wheat!

This beer may be minimally crisp and I suppose somewhat refreshing, but the brewery's other advertisement, the claim that this is a "one-of-a-kind taste", is most definitely not true. Raspberry Wheat tastes decent, but it tastes like every other raspberry flavoured beer (and most other artificially flavoured raspberry-themed beverages as well).

Which is why if I'm really looking for fruity refreshment I'd just as well look to fresh-squeezed juice or mineral water (with which this is not all that dissimilar) or even plop down a few extra bucks and treat myself to a fruit Lambic. If I'm looking to beer for my refreshment I would opt for a better beer, this brewery's Imperial Pale Ale perhaps.

I don't fault Garrison for Raspberry Wheat, it is no better no worse than most North American fruit beers and I'm sure that is exactly what the brewer intended it to be. My personal opinion, however, is that these kinds of dumb-down, lackluster, uninspired fruit beers don't really afford you the satisfaction of either real fruit or real beer.

The beer pours an orange color with a white head. The aroma is full of syrupy raspberry with some wheat notes thrown in for good measure. The flavor follows suit. I get a lot of raspberry, as well as some grain and wheat notes. Thin mouthfeel and high carbonation.

Colour is amber with golden hues. Almost orange at the edges. White, bubbly head dissipates in the blink of an eye, leaving no lacing, but a thin haze on the surface of the beer.
Smells of tart raspberry, with some bread and grains.
Taste is similar, much tart raspberry with some fruit sweetness. Biscuity in the background.
Mouthfeel is somewhat smooth, little bit of carbonation. Medium-thin body.
Very drinkable in the summer, refreshes quite nicely. Not one I'd drink regularly, though.

Pours a brilliantly clear light copper with a very large bone-coloured head that is quite thick and lasts well, leaving a little lacing. Smell is rather nondescript. Malty, with a hint of fruitiness and yeast. The raspberries are actually rather subdued, and it is a woody sort of funk that takes the lead aromatically. Taste is not bad. Again the raspberries are less assertive than usual in extract brews, with a tart yeastiness coming through at first. The berries are there in the middle, along with a hint of grain, and the finish is dry and sharp as the wheat makes its presence known. Mouthfeel is quite full and highly carbonated, and drinkability is decent. Not bad really. I usually end up pouring out offerings like this, but I rather enjoyed this one, even if I'm not planning to go back for more.

Appearance - The body is a very plain looking amber ale with blonde notes with a fairly noticeable amount of particles floating in it and a degree of cloudiness. The carbonation is fairly disappointing as the body seems barely alive, and the thumb of head the pour offered vanished after the second sip, so lacing also isn't happening.

Smell - Has a nice light raspberry scent that doesn't come across as artificial. There is a light wheat and toffee malt in the background and it didn't take much warming to come out.

Taste - A bit odd as the raspberry is saved for last. It starts with a balanced wheat and toffee malt with the dry wheat reigning in the sweeter barley. From there a bitter kick of what I assume are hops make a presence but while the bitterness is present, the taste is completely reigned in by just the right amount of raspberry flavor that slowly wisps away.

Mouthfeel - The carbonation seems to only accent the rather boring malt flavor of the beer. The lack of head also hurts it here, as the fact that it leaves no raspberry aftertaste, which I sorta expected. Good transitioning and the fact there is little cloying going just make up for the issues.

Drinkability - It's not quite there sadly. I mean it's easy to get down and leaves no gas or stomach issues, but the bitter/sweet duality while interesting doesn't let this beer become an easy summer drinker or a fruitier desert beer. That and the dryer wheat malt may actually be working against it a bit.

Final Thoughts - I'm disappointed by this beer, but I can't really blame the brewer here. I guess I'm searching for a raspberry Wit that has a degree of citrus complimented by the raspberry. This one sadly doesn't do it, and it comes across almost like a fruit pilsner. It's decent, but I think for my wheat beers, I'll stick to wits and heavy banana weizens for the time being.